“FIRED UP FOR MISSION”

12th Sunday aft. Pentecost       August 19, 2007

United Lutheran Church—Red Wing

Luke 12:49-53

              “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!

             I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under

              until it is completed!”

Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen.

              Two week ago I was reading the article in the Sunday Tribune entitled BWCA Fires Bring Forest Rebirth.   It told of how the two major wildfires in less than a year had brought about a new forest cycle.  It was bringing back the green and the visitors to the North Woods up along the Gun Flint Trail and the Boundary Waters.  I was reminded of one of the trips we took with our Senior High Youth at Trinity Lutheran in Blue Earth to Sky Ranch in the Rocky Mts. just west of Ft. Collins, Colorado.  Two years in a row we went mountain biking in the area that borders Estes and Rocky Mt. National Parks.

              That first year a couple of our youth were not able to bike those trails and roads so I stayed in base camp feeling a little “bummed out” since I had anticipated the biking experience.  But the day hikes we took during the week brought other rich experiences.

On one of our day-long hikes we ventured into Rocky Mt. National Forest through an area that had been burned the summer before.  Lightning had struck and ignited a raging forest fire that consumed thousands and thousands of forest.  The fire had moved so close to the Sky Ranch base camp that all campers and staff had to be evacuated.

              For a time it looked like Sky Ranch and all its buildings would be destroyed, a similar threat took place to the Wilderness Canoe Base this year in the boundary waters

Area.  But in the case of Sky Ranch, the winds changed direction and the course of the fire shifted missing the camp by one half mile.  As we hiked that day through this area, amidst the remains of great Lodge Pole Pines, the acrid smell of the fire still lingered after a full year.  What was amazing to see was the new growth beginning to reach for the sky. 

              New growth was coming up out of the soil.  New beginnings in that burned out forested area,  where once stood these stately coniferous trees.  In great part because while the pine cones from those Lodge Poles are thick and tough, not easily broken open, had burst open because of the intensity of the extreme heat of the fire.  The fire had done

its work, burst them open, and scattered the seeds around.  In the midst of what must have been a frightening, raging fires which destroyed trees, vegetation, and chased wild life

from the area…in the midst of that, something marvelous and productive had taken place.

For without the fires, most of these seeds would not have been released and new vegetation would not have begun.  At times the earth needs a fire cast upon it, or it will not survive and regenerate.

              It doesn’t take much digging around in the Scriptures to notice the prominence

 of the image of fire in the traditions and experiences of our faith.  A burning bush caught the attention of Moses until he heard the voice of God directing the people in the wilderness with commandments and promises for a new land.  The Jerusalem Temple had fires consuming cereal and animal offerings, sacrificed for the sins of the people offering forgiveness and reconciliation between God and God’s people.  The Pentecost Experience recorded in Acts, telling of the Holy Spirit coming upon those first Christian believers which send people to tell of Christ in a hostile world.  The Letter of Hebrews says it simply that, “Our God is a consuming fire!”

              All of this runs toward Jesus words, “I came to cast fire upon the earth!”  Jesus, speaking to Peter, that blustery(pine tree of a disciple), “Peter, I have a fire to cast over the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”  We’re not drawn to words of Jesus like those but unless we have taken all the vitality out of our Christian faith, we have to allow that Christ is the fire of judgment and the fire of the Spirit using whatever means possible to stir up the fires of faith within us.  We’re readily drawn to the Jesus who seems meek and mild, but the Jesus who call us sinners, who holds us accountable for our lives, who doesn’t wink at our lack of faith and commitment, is another matter.  One who is often avoided.

              I think Jesus knew that Peter, like all of his disciples, was like a wilderness that needed fire to regenerate and rejuvenate or that fledgling faith within them would die.

The fire of God’s word is needed to keep our hearts from freezing over, to keep the passion of the spirit from cooling down.  This Jesus in our Gospel for today reminds us that the good news demands decision and that such decisions will at times bring divisions.

              Jesus words say to me, “Let the Word of God heat you up!”  We all have times in our lives of cooling down, when those fires of passion within us, for our faith, our work, our families wane.  When the fires of our love grow dim and faint replacing the fires of passion.  We can get complacent, tired, preoccupied, even lazy.  Like those Lodge Pole pine cones, we need the fire of god’s word in our lives to put a “fire in our belly” as a friend likes to say, for the life of faith

              I’ve found that this fire doesn’t simply come because I psych myself up or give myself a pep talk.  But it comes through the fire of God’s spirit.  C. S. Lewis once wrote that the Gospel was concerned to create “New People” not just “Nice People.”  We don’t make ourselves into those kinds of people.  The heart of our faith reminds us of that.  The baptism that Jesus speaks about for himself is nothing less than the cross, where he offers up his life for us.  Only in and through his suffering and dying, will He live.  Only through his suffering and dying for us, will we live.  Only through the power of His Spirit will we come to this new life. Only then can we become new and different persons.

              Flannery O’Connor, short story writer, in a letter to a friend said, “What people don’t realize is how much religion costs.  They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.”  And John Howard Yoder wrote, “Our Cross is like our Lord’s; the end of a path freely chosen after counting the cost.” 

              Ironically, the fire in us, begins with water!  In the initial giving of the Spirit of God in our baptism.  But it’s kept alive through the Word and the Spirit, the bread and the wine of forgiveness, prayer and fellowship…all by the gracious gift of God’s spirit alive within us.  At times it takes a bolt of lightning, the struggles in life, the pains and losses we experience, the wrestling with God, and the fires that crack us open and rekindle the fire of faith.  Like the phoenix rising from the ashes.

              Martin Luther knew that when he wrote that the Word of God always puts the world in a state of tumult because it comes like fire cast on the earth.  “For the Word of God comes, and whenever it comes, it comes to change and renew the world.”

              At this time of the year as the end of summer draws down upon us and we get ready to settle into a more focused season of emphasis on the mission of Christ’s church, I have a sense of needing to be aware of rekindling the fire within.  Certainly, as we gear up all of our emphases as a congregation—worship, programmatic start-ups, the calling out of gifts and abilities for the work of the congregation, it is a test of our conviction and commitment to Jesus Christ, no less to the mission and ministry that channels in us and through us here at United for the sake of the world.

              It is fire, fire in each person’s being, that brings us to willingly offer our gifts,

urges us to be people fired up for mission.  The image in my head and heart is that of a people rekindled by God’s spirit, alive and fired up for the mission and outreach for the sake of the world.   We cannot force this faith we hold to in Christ, but we have the capacity to be examples through our witness, in telling the story, through our words and actions, and by interpreting what Christ has done and is doing in us.

              I saved an article from last Fall where the writer in an article entitled, “Good News People”, where he contrasted the differences between maintenance and mission congregations.

*Measuring effectiveness:

              Maintenance asks: “How many pastoral visits are being made?”

              Mission asks: “How many disciples are being made?”

*Contemplating change:

              Maintenance says: “If this proves upsetting to any in our congregation, we won’t                                          do it.”

              Mission says:  If this will help us reach someone outside, we will take the risk.”

*Thinking about change:

              Maintenance asks: “How will this affect me?”

              Mission asks: “Will this increase our ability to reach those outside?”

*Thinking of its vision for ministr:

              Maintenance says: “We have to be faithful to our past.”

              Mission says: “We have to be faithful to our future.”

*Confronted by legitimate pastoral concern:

              Maintenance pastors ask: “How can I meet this need?”

              Mission pastors ask: “How can this need be met?”

*Regarding conflict:

Maintenance seeks to avoid conflict at any cost.

Mission congregations understand that conflict is the price of progress/willing to     

       pay the cost.

*When thinking about growth:

              Maintenance congregations ask: “How many Lutherans live within a twenty

                            Minute drive of this church?”

              Mission congregations ask: “How many unchurched people live within a twenty                                minute drive of this church?”

*Regarding outreach/evangelism:

              Maintenance congregations look at the community and ask: “How can we get

                            these people to support our congregation?”

              Mission congregations ask: “How can the church support these people?”

To be fired up for mission is not about doing things right.  It is about doing the right things!

              It’s a terrible thing to be neither called nor sent.  To wake up morning after morning with no great call to heed, to go out day after day with no great conviction.

For Christ call us all to follow Him.  He provides for us through his death and resur-

rection so that we can be new and different people.  He equips us through the work of His Spirit, firing us up, kindling the flame of faith within us for a reason, a purpose, THE

PURPOSE OF BEING IN MISSION!

              The fire Jesus is calling onto the earth is the tempering and purifying fire of His love.  Our task is to continue to pray for that rekindling fire within us, for ourselves and for our congregation and the whole Christian family on earth.  So that each day, we may be fired up, have the “FIRE IN OUR BELLY”, for mission,  for Jesus sake and the sake of his whole world!

AMEN                                                                                       Pastor Clark Cary